Ilga Vālodze Ābelkina visits Münster

From March 10 to 12, Ilga Vālodze Ābelkina is visiting Münster, where she is researching the library and archive managed by the Latvian Centre in Münster and the Latvian Community in Germany. During her visit, she is also listening to stories from former students of the Münster Latvian Gymnasium about life at the school, the centre’s adaptation to changing times following the school’s closure in 1998, and the legendary song and dance production “Mičotāji”, which toured Latvian centres on three continents in the 1970s. A publication about “Mičotāji” by I. V. Ābelkina is currently being prepared for the journal “Letonica” and is expected later this year.

Many thanks for the warm hospitality to the head of the library, Dina Krastiņa, the chairman of the Latvian Community in Germany, Arnis Drille, as well as to the other participants of the storytelling evening—former Münster gymnasium students Andris Zemītis, Viktors Kangers, Lilija Tenhāgena, Sandra Vadone, Dzidra Neimane, and Inese Kalniņa, a researcher from the Latvian State Archives who is also currently conducting work in Münster.

The activities are taking place within the project “Latvian Folklore Studies in Exile” (No. lzp-2024/1-0522), funded by the Latvian Council of Science.